CAT Meetings
Olympian Fields of Action Series #16.6; Climate Action Team Meetings
Yes, it’s true. This time the rumors are correct. CATS can have agendas for their meetings.
CAT Recap
But before we get to our discussion of Climate Action Team meetings, let’s do a bit of a CAT recap. (For more, see other posts in this CATS Series.)
CATS help us to be together enough, our sixth movement characteristic/imperative/goal. But they also help us become the rest of our seven characteristics as well: big and broad and active enough, passionate and deep enough, dynamic enough, organic and strategic enough, and around long enough to make a difference.
CATS are volunteer groups or teams ideally made up of 5-10 members organized based on many factors, but usually revolving around things CAT members have in common: school, job/profession, organizational affiliation, faith community, where you live, shared interests, age. Your CAT could be the Tulsa Gardners CAT, the Beloit Bowlers CAT, the Shanghai Swifties CAT, the Pawtucket Plumbers CAT, etc.
CATs are crucial. Other social forms — organizations, coalitions, associations, businesses, nations — won’t be enough to achieve our vision, purpose, and Major Goal. We need CATS.
CATS are sui generis. Your CAT has never existed before. That means you get to create it. You get to determine what it is and how you do everything and what everyone’s roles are. Everything about your CAT is up to your CAT.
CATS, therefore, are one of the greatest expressions of freedom of our time.
Being a part of a CAT will help you achieve things you never could alone, and could become one of the great experiences of your life. Or not. It’s up to your CAT.
What CATS Do
Those of us who have joined The Climate Movement have promised to make a sustained commitment to collective action over time to achieve our vision, purpose, and Major Goal: to overcome climate change by creating a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything.
Wow. That’s a lot. That’s big. Glorious, but impossible on our own. That’s why it must be collective action over time.
CATS meet regularly to support each other in our efforts to fulfill our Climate Movement Promise.
So this is what CATS do:
meet
support
act.
Ok, We’re Meeting. Now What?
So when we meet, how do we do the other two, support and act?
What I offer next are SUGGESTIONS. Remember: you and your CAT members are in charge of your CAT. You are free to decide what you are going to do. You’re a CAT, and you’re gonna do what you’re gonna do.
Dynamic Enough and Structure
It’s good to keep in mind that our fourth Movement characteristic is being dynamic enough, which is the combination of the tried-and-true, discipline, freedom, and creativity. All four are connected to structure.
As for tried-and-true, we can learn from, borrow from, and adapt past and current approaches.
Our meetings can be disciplined in the sense of time, process/rules, roles, and decision-making.
As in the case of Jazz, structure isn’t necessarily the enemy of freedom and creativity. In fact, it can release them. Especially when something is new, and when everyone is new, structure can turn chaos or vacuousness into strategic productivity, providing a sense of direction and helping to create forward momentum towards success and fulfillment. We can and must be both organic and strategic enough.
So you are free to determine how you will structure your:
time
rules
roles
decision-making.
Time: Meeting regularly and consistently and for an standard agreed upon length of time is best. The time and date for each meeting is agreed upon by the CAT. There can be a set time and day: e.g., each Wednesday from 7:30-8:30pm, or every other Tuesday from 8-9pm.
As for how you will spend your time productively, each meeting has an agenda (see sample below) that is agreed upon at the beginning. Consider creating a standard agenda that can be modified. Determine how long each meeting will go. Again, there can be a standard set time.
Rules: Articulate some basic ground rules that everyone affirms, e.g., that meetings begin and end on time, that everyone is treated with respect, that everyone honors the agenda and agrees to any modifications of the agenda. Establishing a process allows you to not waste time on process!
Roles: All roles (see below) should be designated and agreed upon by the CAT. A prime example: meetings should be facilitated. This could be one person or there could be a schedule with different people assuming the facilitator role for each meeting.
Decision-making: Agree on how decisions will be made. Consensus? Majority? A designated member? You could use all three and more. I would suggest consensus for major decisions, and designated roles for smaller decisions. Remember: consensus doesn’t necessarily mean unanimity. Individual members may voice their disagreement, but agree to go along with the rest of the CAT. Consensus builds group trust, cohesion, and belonging — all crucial for group success with big things and for the longevity of the CAT.
Agenda Suggestions
For structuring your time together through an agenda, here are some initial suggestions.
1. Keep Centered: Reaffirm Vision and Who You Are Creating a Better World For
Why does this CAT exist? Why are we devoting precious time and talent to it? It’s a good idea to continually remind ourselves why we are taking on this challenge on our Olympian Fields of Action.
At every meeting you could do two things to keep centered. The first at or near the beginning, the second at or near the end.
Reaffirm our vision, purpose, and Major Goal by saying it together:
To overcome climate change by creating a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything.
Remind ourselves and each other who we are creating a better world for. Go around the circle and have each CAT member to say a name or names out loud. Members could also hold up to their chests a picture of the person or persons. After everyone has done so, together reaffirm the Better Future Covenant:
“Together we will leave today’s children and their children and subsequent generations a better world free from pollution and the threat of climate change, a world with justice and prosperous sustainability where everyone and everything has what they need to live the lives intended for them, where everyone can become who they were meant to be.”
2. Discussion Topics
Group discussions help the CAT get to know one another, grow together as a team, and learn more about the climate challenge so you are better able to support one another in fulfilling your Climate Movement Promise and our Better Future Covenant.
For CATS just getting started, discuss the 10 Movement Values I have put forward and determine which ones you will affirm as a CAT. Discuss any other values you may want to affirm and decide if you will add any to your list of affirmed Values of your CAT.
At every meeting discuss one of the values you have affirmed: love, justice, beauty, freedom, creativity, wisdom, pragmatism, non-violence, sustainability, and success.
Climate Hope Together Posts
The CAT could decide to discuss any of the posts on the Climate Hope Together website. You could also go through any of the Series on the website, e.g., the Intro Series, the Hope & Justice Series, the Olympian Fields of Action Series, the CATS Series, the Our Values Series.
3. The Arts
Bring the Arts into your meetings — e.g., sing songs together, dance together, share photos together. Remember: we are all Climate Movement Artist-Athletes.
4. Closing
Determine together a way you would like to close each meeting, a positive activity that helps build team cohesion. For example, form a circle, touch hands in the center and say a Team phrase you create. This could be as simple as one word, e.g. “Team!” Or it could be the name of your CAT, e.g. “Sebastian CAT!”
Roles
There can be lots of roles within each CAT. Below are a few suggestions. There can be agreed upon terms of service for each role. Each CAT can come up with names for designated roles — descriptive ones like I’m using below, or more colorful ones created by your CAT.
Facilitator — As mentioned above, this can be one person or multiple people on a rotating basis. The facilitator organizes the agenda and leads the CAT through it, encouraging member participation, while helping the CAT to begin and end on time to be respectful of everyone’s time. In short, they run/facilitate the meeting in keeping with everything that has been agreed upon by the CAT. They bring out the best in everyone and make sure everyone feels valued and has a voice.
Value Keepers — Appoint individuals in the group to be the “keeper” or guardian of each of the CAT’s values and the Better Future Covenant, serving to keep each one alive by facilitating the actualization of their particular value. The keeper will be on the lookout for how the CAT is living in and living out their Value, and report to the Team their observations, praising the group for fulfilling the Value, or encouraging the Team to more fully live in and live out love, justice, beauty, freedom, creativity, wisdom, pragmatism, non-violence, sustainability, and success. A Value-Keeper can be the guardian of more than one.
Action-Actualizer — Ensures that a steady stream of actions are proposed, agreed upon, and carried out by the CAT. (See more, below.)
Joy-Spotter — Appoint someone to be the CAT’s “joy-spotter,” who will point out joys within the Team’s orbit as well as those happening in the Climate Movement.
Wisdom-Facilitator — See more on wisdom below.
Actions
Urgency Reminder — At every meeting the Action-Actualizer can remind the CAT that we are on the kairos-climate-clock where speed and scale of change imperatives. The time for bold, consistent, strategic action is now.
Justice Reminder — For all we do as members of a CAT, the three actions of justice — stopping bad stuff, setting wrong right, and making things better — must be a part of the discussion. We must be doing at least one of the three actions of justice, and, wherever possible, doing all three. The CAT should discuss how each proposed action is doing so.
Where: Actions take place on what I have called our Olympian Fields of Action. Such Fields of Action can include: the Climate Movement itself; where you work or go to school; any other groups/associations/faith communities you belong to; your neighborhood, city, county, state, and nation, businesses you patronize — in short, where you and your CAT can make a strategic difference. This includes pushing the other three Catalytic Sources of Transformation to play their roles creating the speed and scale of change that’s needed.
Remember: the two Fields of Action that we all are on together are (1) growing and improving The Climate Movement, and; (2) engaging politicians/policymakers.
Who: In terms of who are carrying out actions, there are three basic kinds:
Individual actions
CAT actions
Movement actions.
Individual actions — CATS exist to support their members in climate action, e.g., growing The Climate Movement by talking to a friend. Between meetings each team member should be involved in action and report on how they are moving forward with action and/or how they have completed specific actions and what the results were and how they contribute to our vision, purpose, and Major Goal. All members should receive encouragement and any help needed in carrying out individual actions.
CAT actions — The team should discuss, approve, plan, and implement CAT actions that are specific to your CAT, such as local actions done together.
Movement actions — Being strategic includes participating in joint efforts: e.g., campaigns, boycotts, marches, local events nation-wide on the same day, etc.
Keep this in mind: even defeats can contribute, e.g. by building stronger CAT relationships, by learning what works and what doesn’t — both of which set the stage for future victories.
Wisdom
Our Movement Values are characterized by three things: they inspire, they guide, and they are valuable to us. One Movement Value to be highlighted for healthy, well-functioning, and fun CATS is wisdom.
For us wisdom is the ability to discern:
how to balance our values with one another and the circumstances;
the best course of action to take when what choice to make isn’t clear;
how to balance and integrate organic and strategic change;
gifts and abilities in others;
our limits;
who can be trusted;
when to take risks;
when to compromise, and when not to;
when to retreat, regroup, and live to fight another day.
We don’t always get things right. The world is too complex for that. But wisdom improves our odds of taking the right course of action towards ultimate victory while maintaining our integrity.
So, in a nutshell: wisdom guides us in our search for victory with integrity. This is a profound source of inspiration for action. It’s hard to beat a victory with integrity, and when we do achieve it we want more.
Wisdom includes discerning the gifts and abilities of those on our Climate Action Team. At CAT meetings those gifts and abilities must be recognized and called out and supported when they are put into action for the CAT.
Remember: wisdom isn’t just an attribute of individuals; it can be the product of group discussion. The CAT should recognize someone to be the Wisdom-Facilitator (or another name you come up with). There can also be more than one and they can trade off or co-facilitate.
Suggested Sample CAT Agenda
Led by the CAT Facilitator
Welcome and Brief Announcements — Facilitator
Recite Vision Together: “We are overcoming climate change by creating a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything.” — Led by Facilitator
Discussion Topic: AI Data Centers — Designated CAT member
Action: Remind everyone we’re on the kairos-climate-clock; review your last CAT action; have members report on individual actions and discuss how the CAT can help; discuss the next CAT action, e.g., working with local activists to oppose a proposed local AI Data Center; discuss how actions achieve justice; remind everyone of the upcoming Climate Movement march. — Action Actualizer
Values: Ask Values-Keepers to share any thoughts past and/or upcoming actions and group activities. — Relevant Values-Keepers
Time For Wisdom — Let your Wisdom-Facilitator have the floor for any reflections or suggested discussion.
Song: Sing the CAT’s song (i.e. a song chosen by the CAT as your song) — Designated Song Leader
Motivation: Each member holds a photo up and shares out loud a name or names of people who we are creating a better world for — Facilitator
Final Announcements: Reminders, etc — Facilitator
Closing: “Team!” — the CAT
CATS Are Crucial
Without CATS we won’t become the greatest and most long-lasting social change movement in the history of the world. We won’t make the impossible possible and the possible actual and the actual beautiful and our future come faster. We won’t create the needed speed and scale. We won’t overcome climate by creating a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything.
With CATS we can do it all.
If you are new here, check out our Intro Series and other posts in our CATS Series. If you like this post, please “like,” comment, and share. And thanks for all you’re doing.